Christmas Matches - Manor Farm Ash Pool and Whitehall Open

Manor Farm 28th December

Weather: 4C-8C clear and windy.
Water: Unbelievably still quite a lot of colour in the water
Peg: 6
Baits: SDP Nori 1mm feed pellet, 4mm ringers cool water pumped with SFA 430, Marukyu EFG 130 and red maggot.

Weight: 16lb 10oz (Section win)

I got asked to fish a match on one of manor farm's pools, I have seen and heard a lot about this venue. It is solid and the results during winter are consistently high. Unfortunately the pool we fished didn't really have enough room for the anglers fishing which made the fishing tough.

I set up on my peg and first of all found the bottom of the near side slope, I fished half a metre up the slope at just under 6m in 5ft of water. For this line I used a hillbilly billybob in 0.2g to 0.11 powerline and a 0.10 hooklength to a 18 drennan silverfish maggot.

The next pole line I set up to fish was a long line at 11m-14.5m, I found a uniform bottom here so plumped on starting at 11m due to a cross wind making things difficult. I set up a maver invincible series 7 in 0.6g to 0.13 powerline and the same hooklength and hook as above, this was to white hydro on a pulla.

Finally I set up a feeder/bomb line in case the fish were not coming within reaching distance for the pole. It turned out that this was the only thing I could fish due to the cross winds and then the sun reflecting so brightly in my peg I couldn't see anything, let alone a dotted down float even with polarised glasses on. I used my brand new 11ft maver powerlite feeder, with a snap swivel attaching either bomb, cage and 8inch-12inch hooklengths.

I started off the session by potting in around 20 micros and 4-5 expanders on my pole lines and then chucked a small drennan grip-mesh feeder out with a 8inch 0.11 powerline hooklength to a size 18 drennan carp feeder hook for maggot and another with a quickstop on a hair rig for Jpz or fluro boilies. I chucked out every 8mins at the start and had 2 liners but no proper takes.

The lack of action on any ones tip lines prompted me to switch to the pole I noticed people opposite me catching on the long pole. I went out to 11m for 30mins without a bite. The wind was picking up which meant I couldn't hold my pole at 11m at all. The 6m line was not producing but I kept frugally feeding this swim.

I switched back to my feeder line and after 4mins and just over an hour gone the tip wanged around and my first f1 of about a pound found it's way into the net. The next hour produced a couple of skimmers and small F1s. However the bites were finicky and I was getting lots of knocks which made me think they were attacking the groundbait. I switched to the method and managed a carp of 3lb on the first chuck.

The final hour was the most producted for me, I caught 2 carp of around 3lb each and 2 more F1's all back on the groundbait feeder and dead red maggots.


Whitehall Open 30th December

Weather: 4C-6C overcast in morning then pouring down in afternoon.
Water: Colour has dropped completely
Peg: 8
Baits: Micros, 4mm expanders, caster, maggot, Sensas Roach 3000 80% mixed with 20% Sensas Lake Black .

Weight: 10lb 8oz 4th (best non carp weight)

I decided to run an open on the club pool between christmas and new years, it was down to be a match fished by MFS however with lack of numbers I ran it as an open.

I drew peg 8 slap bang in the middle of the pool and towards the deeper water that the larger fish tend to move towards in the winter.

I set up 3 lines, the fist was for catching a number of silvers quickly at 5m with maggot and casters over groundbait. I found just over 7ft here so fished a 0.4g homemade pencil float with stung out shotting, I also set a rig up at half deck here on a 0.07 SconeZone Bitz. Both of these lines were 0.10 to 0.08 and a 20 drennan silverfish maggot hook.

At 13m I wanted to fish pellet and pick up everything that swam here. I set up a 0.06 SconeZone Berweemz in just over 8ft of water here  and at about 8 1/2 ft at 10'oclock line for a back up if the fish move from my feed. This was on 0.13 powerline to a 0.11 hooklength and 19 Drennan Silverfish Maggot hook. This was matched to a solid latex size 8 on a pulla bung.

The session started with me potting in a tangerine sized ball of groundbait on my 5m line along with around 15 caster for fish to graze over. I then went out to 13m with 20 micros and an expander on the hook. First 10mins didnt give me any signs so 20 more micros went in through a cad pot and a maggot was tried on the hook. This time 3 roach came to the net but after a long time between them. I changed the shotting on this rig to have 4 droppers below the bulk instead of my usual 2.

On returning out to the 13m line with more droppers I let the rig settle and the bristle buried and a lovely crucian of 10oz came to the net. Then 3 more brown goldfish followed all around the 8oz mark, I reckon that these were sat above the feed and just followed the feed down and thus the pellet falling slower and took them as they hit the deck.

After this short flurry I lost the fish so moved onto the short line where I had now potted in 3 balls of groundbait. I went over with a caster and 2 small roah followed straight away and then a load of liners. I moved the shotting but againg just hit liners. I put the half depth on the drop rig over with a single maggot and had 2 rudd and a good roach of 6oz-8oz. This line was producing small fish but they were of no size. I had to gamble on the pellet line.

On returning to the pellet line it soon ame clear that it was solid with brown goldfish, I took 10 brown goldfish, 2 goldfish, 5 roach and 2 large fantails in the last 2 hours. I could have taken more however I had issues with my float; I had dotted it down to see the finicky bites which was fine. The water turned white which made things tricky so I coloured my bristle black which made it look like a rain drop so I kept losing sight of it. I had to then take some shot off and look for dinks so I must have missed 8-10 bites.

All in all an enjoyable match and its just good to get some bites this time of year.

Whitehall Fur and Feather - 20th November 2011

Weather: 6C overcast, foggy and cold.
Water: Colour had dropped completely out of first foot or so
Peg: 22
Baits: Casters, worm, mircos and 4mm expanders
Weight: 3lb 0oz

The weather is no where near the harshness experienced last year so the fur and feather should fish O.K. and the fish should respond even though there were a lot of anglers on the pool right... right... wrong.


I pulled peg 22 out of the bag which I thought could have been worth a few fish, I had said prior to the match pegs 12-19 would be my favoured draws today I wasn't too far out of the area I wanted. My approach was to catch anything and everything today as the time of the year means the carp would be reticent to feed and I cannot sit and do nothing in a match, it is not the way I fish. I plumbed a line at 13m and 14.5m to be the same depth at 8 1/2 ft and also a line short at 8m just 2 inches shallower so the same rig was used for the deck. I also set up on the drop rigs at 5ft and 3 ft to search the water for bites if things got hard.


My deck rig was a sconezone berweemz in 0.6g to 0.13 powerline and a 0.10 powerline hooklength with a size 18 drennan silverfish maggot hook. This was shotted with a bulk 2 feet from the hook and 4 no10's stotz spaced 6 inches apart. I matched this to white hydro, which although a little heavy for small silvers would ensure I get any bream, chub or proper carp in using the pulla.


My 'drop' rigs were on hillbilly billybobs the 3ft rig on a 0.1g and the 5 ft rig on a 0.2g both were on 0.10 powerline to 0.08 hooklenghts with a 20 drennan silverfish maggot hook both to a number 5 latex. Shotting was strung out 10's at 6inches apart for both rigs, the reason for the 6 inches is that this is the same size as my hooklength so the rig is falling evenly through the water and at no point is the line sinking faster than the hookbait, this also allows you to read any bites at any point on the rigs fall through the water. If there was a bulk then you cannot read any bites on the drop until the bulk has settled unless the fish hooks its self.


On the all in I potted in a tangerine sized ball of micros, worm, caster and peat that the worms came in on my 13m line and went over the top with the 5ft rig to pick out any fish cruising and intercepting the bait on the drop. I had a tiny nudge on this rig in 5mins so went onto the deck. I was feeding 8-10 casters every 30seconds to draw fish into my peg.


The first hour saw me blank completely on the deck and after 30mins I potted in again which had no result so at 11:00 I potted my 3rd ball in. 5mins later the bristle lifted and then buried, a strike saw white hydro streaming from my pole tip and unfortunately into Keith Holt's peg and his rig. This resulted in the carp becoming unhooked and lost (I still believe Keith purposefully sabotaged me!!!!).


After this I started to get liners on my rig so I slapped the 5ft rig on to the surface, again a couple of liners and then the float stayed sat proud of the water I struck into a lovely 2oz golden rudd... the dreaded blank was avoided. Again I was getting liners so I got the 3ft rig out and first put in the float cocked and then buried aggressively and a strike saw elastic zig zagging across the surface, a lovely 10oz-12oz perch was the victim.


All the time I was pinging in caster 10 at a time. The next couple of drops resulted in small 5 small roach looking things upto 1oz. I was contemplating going a foot deeper with my other rig when I layed the rig on the water and the float scooted across the water and a lift saw my tip get dragged under the water, the result a lovely chub of nearly 1lb. After this I went to the deeper rig after the 3ft rig did not produce.


First 3 put ins saw rudd come to the net all at around 2oz, a few fruitless drops then saw another chub to about 8oz come to the net. Next thing I know I am half an hour from the end of the match, I spend 15mins on the deck for 1 roach at about 4oz, until finally the drop rig produced an ide of about 8oz.


3lb went the scales, i had guestimated a bit more at 3 1/2lb which would have catpulted me up a couple of places but the prize I had my eye on was still at the table when I got there in 6th place. A huge bucket of continental style groundbaits and some pellets and additives will help my already clustered shelves of bait. A well ran match and well enjoyed, well by me anyway, well done Whitehall angling club and all involved for a great year.


In other news I have been to Larford fishing the classic qualifiers on sundays on the speci lake, I have had 1 good draw and 1 average draw and have done equally pants on both, narrowly missing out on a section win beaten by Grant Albutt and a 3rd in section all on the method at distance and some skimmers at 16m on the pole and pellet...

Whitehall King of Sections - 30th October 2011

Weather: 11C Overcast with Threats of Rain.
Water: Colour had dropped slightly but still a good rich brown colour
Peg: 17
Baits: Skrettings Micros, Chopped Prawn and Worm, 6mm VDE RS Expanders, GOT Atomic Paste.
Weight: 34lb 0oz (2nd to Carl Graham AGAIN!!)

A great initiative by the club and Dave Warren to run a final for those who have won a section during the year and £1 of pools from club matches going to this big money final. It was fished on the club pool and a good turn out should make for a good match. I drew on peg 17 on the deep side of the pool and had some scores to settle with this pool on matches having never really sussed it.

I got to my peg and plumbed the depth at 13m to find 9ft of water straight in front of me. I then plumbed a line again at 13m but at 10'oclock to me, this plumbed up exactly the same so the same rig was used. I used a Sconezone double deez in 0.8g to 0.17 powerline and a 0.15 hooklength to a 16 B911. This was matched to a top 2 with grey hydro on a pulla. Down my left edge I had 8ft a metre from the bank so set a paste rig up here in the hope that some munters would come in at some point in the match. This rig was a Sconezone Jadz 0.6g to 0.14 through to a 12 B911 on black hydro.

My two out lines would be fed completely differently. I fed both lines a mixture of dampened micros chopped prawns and worms that formed into a ball nicely. I fed straight in front with a large cad pot every 8mins or every large fish and my '10 o'clock' line with a large pot every 45mins. I started on my line straight in front and had  a number of small fish on the worm and the prawn wasn't really producing. It was hard going but I had managed to snare a 4lb carp, 4 of the year old stockies, a 1lb plus perch, a crucian and 8 roach and rudd by 12:15 when I decided to go on the 10 o'clock line. I had a lost carp on this line, a fan tail and a few bits and pieces.

At 13:30 I decided to try down the edge where I had fed balls of micros. First put in I missed a huge sail away. 2nd put in a little twitch and a big stike saw black hydro sit oabove my swim and plod around very frimly. A true munter was on and this plodded around my swim for a while before then deciding to bottom me out, I hurridly got some more sections out  and got the leviation in. Later weighed at 14lb 6oz. A couple of smaller beasties later the paste line had died. The last 30mins saw me go out again and get another stockie and a beautiful Koi Carp my first ever. I had won my section but had I enough to beat the on form Carl Graham a nervy weigh in revealed I was 1 carp short. What a great competition and 2 matches left for me until the early spring a possible Autumn league decider with St. Johns and the Fur and Feather where a prize will be guaranteed. Thanks for reading!!

Whitehall League - Tirley Pete's Lake 23rd October 2011

Weather: 10C-12C Overcast
Water: Slight ripple on surface, good carp puddle brown
Peg: 5
Baits: Coppens 4.5mm feed pellet, VDE RS 6mm Expanders, Ringers Cool Water 4.5mm Expanders, White Maggot, Got Atomic Paste.
Weight: 56lb 6oz (6th) and section win

Unfortunately this fixture came a few weeks too late to have a 'baggin' match on this heavily stocked carp pool. A good turn out to the last Whitehall league fixture of the season saw me needing a top half finish to win the league and a bigger weight than Carl Graham to score a double and win the clubs knockout competition.

On to the draw and 5 sticks to my hand and puts me next to Dave Warren who has a habbit of doing well on heavily stocked carp pools. I drew on the shallow side of the pool and set my box up 3 ft into the water and still had inches of water around me. Regardless of the Island being an inviting prospect I immediately put my efforts towards the pole lines for speed of catching in order to put a weight together. My pole lines were at 5m, 10m and down the edge.

At 5m I found 3 1/2ft in a small hole to the left which rose to just 2ft towards my right, I fished in this hole and found just 3-4 inches more depth at 10m. Instead of using same rig I set up seperate rigs for the pellet as I like to fish as short a line from float to pole tip as possible. My rigs for lines at 5m and 10m were the same; 0.3g Maver Invincible series 7 pencil floats on 0.17 powerline to 0.15 hooklength and a 16 B911. This was matched to grey hydro. For the 5m line I set up a paste rig to go on if I was getting plagued by gudgeon on pellet and maggot, this was a 0.2g Sconezone Jadz on 0.17 straight through to a 14 B911 and on black hydro. My edge rig was one of my new SconeZone Samurai's on 0.17 powerline straight through to a size 14 B911 for a bunch of maggots down the edge on black hydro.

New SconeZone Samurai Margin Floats

I started the session with a medium cad pot of pellets at 5m and double maggot on the hook, I always do this to check what is currently in the swim. After 5 gudgeon I changed to a 4.5mm pellet and after 5 more gudegeon I changed to a 6mm pellet. The swim then went quiet so either a carp was present or I had caught all the gudgeon, it was a carp and 3 2lb stamp fish came to the net quickly. After this flurry the swim died, I was potting in with a medium cad pot every 5mins or after every carp so a time to change. I reduced the feed and this brought more gudgeon so a change was needed.

I went out to the 10m line and fed the same as I had started at the beggining of the match and had a few fish from this line. The match continued to fish hard and I had to chop and change between the 2 lines, fishing pellet and maggot and the amount of feed going in. Towards the last hour I had fed my margin line and saw 3 fish come in, I went over them straight away with 4 maggots on the hook, the float buried I struck into the back side of a large carp to see 3 bow waves fly off and my rig come flying back towards me. The fish never returned.

I saw other anglers feeding large amounts towards the end so I filled in my 5m line with a large pot of 4.5mm pellet and fished the paste over the top. In the last 45mins I had 5 decent carp on the paste at 5m which gave me 17 carp and 29 gudgeon in my nets. I thought I had around 45lbs so was glad I went over the 50lb barrier, although it seemed the hardest 50lb I have ever scratched around for. At the weight in I had enough to take me to the league championship however the real interest was on the KO with Carl Graham. He pulled out one bag at 32lb, stating his next bag was silvers I thought I had it but seeing him pull out another net of carp to go 30lb+ my heart sank, well angled mate!!

Whitehall League - Riflemans Arms stretch of the Droitwich Canal 9th October 2011

Weather: 12C Light cloud cover with short sunny spells.
Water: BOATS - WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY PEG??
Peg: (Next to Chairman, best behave!) non permanent 6 (spinners section)
Baits: Pinkie, pink ones with a few white ones, chopped worm, Dynamite Baits Silver X black.
Weight: 11lb 6oz (1st)

When I saw this fixture on the list at the start of the year I thought one thing; "I'll have a nice lie whilst the boys gruel that one out". However with the league on a knife edge I had to give it a go, even though the only think I have used a canal for in the past was as a latrine.

Well over to Alans I go in the week and ask Chris to sort me out, he hands me an empty packet of size 22 Kamasan B511's, very funny says I, look closer says he, agh says I they are quite small!! Onto elastics and a my double number 3 is laughed off in the chatbox on MFS and I am instructed to use a single use of size 3, I have stronger elastic in my knickers! But now I am sorted and prepared for scratching around for bites on the canal.

On arrival I am surprised to see the canal has a lot of bankside vegetation and the weed beds offer a lot of options to fish to, at least they would if it was a commy snake lake stuffed with fish. The banter is flying around at the start of the match about certain members fondness of the paste and whether they were going to fish it today. Apparently one did, I shall leave that judgement up to you...

OK onto the session and the rigs I set up were quite simple nearside reeds, track and far side. I started down the track and didn't have a bite for 20mins and never went back to that line so I won't go over rigs for that.

Please excuse the mess, I was half way through packking up when I dedcided to take photo....

For the near side (red boxes) I set up a DC10 in 4x8 for 2 1/2 ft of water (that went to 2ft through the match) this was on 0.10 powerline to a 0.07 hooklength and size 22 B511. This was matched up to a 3 elastic through the top 2 sections of a match kit. My intention here was to feed a small ball of groudbait at each side and feed for bite with pinky over the top.

For the far bank reeds (blue) I intended to fish sloppy mixture of worm, peat and groundbait with a worm over the top. I set up one of my homemade silver pencil floats in 0.2g in 3ft of water on 0.13 powerline to initially 0.10 and a size 18 B511 but changed to a 0.13 and a 18 B911 as the match went on as I kept bending the predecessor hook and the line kept going week around hook due to amount of perch being caught. This was matched to doubled 4 elastic in order to drag fish from the reeds. I did not bump a single fish on this set up.

As previously stated I started my match down the track messing around on punch and pinkie to no avail. I had fed my left hand near side line but did not want to go on them too early. I placed my rig into the hole in the reeds and the float kept sinking to which I thought I had majorly over shotted it, upon lifting my rig out no3 hi-viz elastic is streaming out of my top kit and perch no1 is in the keepnet. I then kept on catching down this side consistently ficking 5 pinkies over the line every 2 fish. After 45 mins of catching I fed my right hand swim so that I had a back up line should this line slow.

Eventually after 90mins of perch bagging the swim started to slow right down. I swapped over and re-fed a ball of groundbait and 12-15 pinkies. The other swim had perch there again, it wasn't as prolific but I was catching (which did not hit home until later) so I was building a weight.

At 1 o'clock and after some boat traffic and lock movement I noticed a drop in the water levels and my nearside lines were dead. Time to feed and try the farside swim. A small pot of sloppy choppy went over and was left for 15mins. I then went over with a half a dendy on the hook to see float bury instantly and the biggest fish of the day graced my landing net, a 8oz-9oz perch. I fed with a toss pot every 3 fish initially and then upped the feed to every 2 fish when the swim really picked up.

One thing I noticed was that when boats went through I went straight back over to the far swim with and a larger specimen would take the hook bait, maybe due to the extra cloud in the water, who knows? In the last 30 mins I had slowed on the far bank so switched to the quicker nearside and caught well at 3/4 depth (20inches) and alternating sides and feed to maximise the swims.

At the weight in I could not call my weight and had 5lb to beat which I thought would be close. When I got my net out I couldn't beleive the amount of fish I had caught! I had to double take when the needle went beyond 10lb and I was really chuffed to have done such a good weight on a venue I was considering to be a write off for me. I think I shall now retire from Canal fishing on a high and concentrate on improving my less than adequate commercial fishing haha!!

Whitehall League - Laugherne Island 11th September 2011

Weather: 16C-18C Light cloud cover with sunny spells.
Water: Thick muddy brown colour
Peg: (Next to Mick Whatling AGAIN!!) 8
Baits: Bag'em Machins Method mix and Bag'em Krill Seaker, Atomic Paste, Coppens 4.5mm pellets, Worm, Dead-Red Maggots, Sonubaits banded hard white pellet.
Weight: 150lb 6oz (3rd)

I have been looking forward to this match for a long time now and it really did not disappoint in any way. I got to cob house a bit early so I could have a cappuccino and a chin wag, I met Snelly in the cafe and started to boggle his brain with the approach to this match.

I fancied a draw on the point of an island or a gap to chuck the method for the first part of the match. At the draw peg 8 stuck to my hand and next to me Mick had drawn 10 and was gloating that he had a gap in the island, oh how I enjoyed seeing his face drop as he pushed his gear gingerly past peg 8 slap bang in the middle of the island!!

My approach was to have them from the island for the best part of 3 1/2 hours or more with the back up of paste at 6m just before the ledge. Then plunder the margins for some big munters late on. I went about setting up my box in the clay bank that had formed since the water dropping so much, I think people were willing me to fall in which is slightly unkind so I gave them a finger salute and got on with extended my box legs at all sorts of weird and wonderful lengths and angles.

For the island I chucked a small Kobra 20g method feeder over with my 9ft Garbo Rocket Picker with my dinky Daiwa Crossfire reel loaded with 4lb sensor. Hooklength was 4inches of 0.24 powerline to a 14 B911 for dead reds and a 14 B911 with a hair rigged band for the pellet.

My paste line was only 3 1/2 ft - 4 ft deep but with the wind and the tow that this pool often has I opted for a 0.6g sconezone jadz float and this was on 0.17 powerline straight through to a  size 12 B911. This was on black hydro, my favourite carping laccy. My edge line was shallow but I managed to find a 18inch hole between 2 fallen in bits of bank and the same depth 2ft from the bank the other side of me. I opted for a hillybilly ratcacher 2 float tied to 0.19 straight through to a 14 Kamasan Animal hook.

The session went as planned with me putting 40lb in the net in the first hour even with a break above the feeder on one BIG fish. Hour 2 saw the bites dry up a bit and I had 30 mins of casting without a touch which told me it was time for a change. I had been throwing dampened pellets over my paste line all morning so went over this line with the paste and was into a fish straight away. I had 4 fish on this line within 20 mins and I had about 60lbs in the net by the half way stage. At this point Dan to my right had started to bag up off the island so I had to chuck over there as the paste was not fishing right for me. I was into fish straight away and put another 30lbs into the net with 10 quik fish.

During this spell I had been throwing in roughly squeezed balls of groundbait down both edges. I now started to cup it in to be more precise with the feed and concentrate the fish. The one edge was tails and backs everywhere which was tempting but I decided that was a one way ticket to foul hookers and ruining that swim. I went down the other edge with 2 whole worms (minus their heads as to leak out some juices) on the hook. 8 edge fish later the all out was called and I foul hooked a beast which pinged off before I could shout fish on. What a match, very rarely things go so well to plan, especially on this pool. I thourougly enjoyed the match due to using a variety of methods and catching a variety of sized fish too.

In further news I have just come back from a second place at St Johns Angling's Tooby's with 43lb of method feeder caught carp with a bonus smimmer of 2lb and a crucian of 10oz. Using my long range casting gear set up from the Barston matches (detailed below) made casting a doddle. Method mix was Bag'ems Machins method mix with super XP green and dead reds, meat and banded white pellet for hook.

Not a bad day you may think, well I caught all those within 11:10 and 12:30. So the first part and end of match were rubbish, to put pay to that I was only 1 fish from 1st place!! I was on peg 3 and cast towards a hump I found on the bottom, just before half way and not just past half away across. I also tried down the edge and short method but it didnt work.

 

Droitwich Cup - Broadacres 4th September 2011 (representing Whitehall)

Weather: 12C-16C Overcast and drizzly rain for the most part, torrential rain at the start.
Water: Clear with colour starting at a foot deep
Peg: Non permanent E6
Baits: Ringers 4mm Expanders dyed red, Fisheries own red strawberry (stupid) pellets, Worm, Caster and RedMaggots
Weight: 7lb 12oz (2nd in Section)

A damp Broadacres played host to the Droitwich cup where 6 teams of 7 anglers go to head to head on  the big pool and charlies pool at broacres. Having done o.k. on the big pool in the Whitehall league match at the venue I was hoping to draw on that pool as snake lakes are not my cup of tea. My drawing hand let me down once again!

So off to Charlies pool I go, A strange old pool which saw me fishing from an island over to another island with another island behind me?! Sound confusing, you should of been there. The three lines that immediately screamed out to me was the far bank, the bottom of the near shelf and the bottom of the far shelf.

Red = Tight to island line.
Blue = Bottom of shelf lines

This pool was not dominated by carp, although it was banded around that you would need a few to get a section win for your team here. So a cocktail was created in order to cover all bases. Half a bait tub of worm was chopped to a slop and then 1 pint of casters and half of red maggot was added, to boost this a bit more dampened fishery pellets were added along with a squirt of red dye. This was used as my feed for the entire session on all lines.

My silvers rigs needed a bit of dusting off to say the least and a size 18 hook looked tiny after spending my summer dragging out mud pigs. The 2 shelf rigs I had plumbed up identical at just under 4ft so I opted for a 0.2g Hillybilly Billybob float, these are stable floats due to the diamond body shape and high density foam body however in the smaller sizes are ultra sensitive for silvers. This was on 0.13 powerline to a 0.11 hooklength to a 18 Drennan silverfish pellet hook, I matched this with white hydro. My rig for over to the island was a bit beefier as I may have to drag some fish from this snaggy area, I found 12-18 inches of water so a Hillybilly ratcatcher 2 was obvious float choice. This was tied to 0.15 straight through to a 16 B911 on double 5 latex.

To start the session I potted in a medium cad pot of my feed onto the near shelf and then went with a pot and a 1/4 of a worm over to the far bank. Fish were coming in straigt away and as I was plumbing up on the island I was having liners but they were spooking from the pole tip. Leaving line was not an option due to me having to poke the pole under the reeds to get tight over. I persevered and managed a few F1's and a small chub.

A change to the pellet and first put in I had a carp on, it wanted to go straight for a sunken tree off the point of the island, however I managed to steer it well away. A healthy 2 1/2 lean common was not a bad start when only one other carp had been landed to my knowledge, but this swim wasn't right. I decided to come off it and put in a half a big pot of mix to try and get the fishes heads down.

I went on to my near margin swim (about 4m) and it was solid with F1's and 6 fish came to the net quickly followed by a couple of small skimmers, feeding a small cad pot after every other fish seemed to keep bites coming and 1/2 worm was doing the damage. This then went quite so I re-fed my island swim and gave the far shelf a go. As my near shelf was this was then solid and 5 F1's and a tench came to the net in quick succesion.

The remainder of the match saw me changing between the 2 shelf swims with the near shelf being slightly more productive with small fish coming to the net frequenlty. The island swim was giving me nightmares as the fish were coming to the feed but were spooking from the pole tip. I reckon I would have had my section had I swung a small method in on the pole as the fish were certainly there. I was surprised to have a 2nd in section and give the team some good points on a grueling day, I got beaten by a paste head who sat it out for the proper carp down the track. As a team we had to carry a last place which dented our chances of winning but a 3rd overall wasn't bad and 3 of the 7 picked up, including me for a default section win.

St.Johns Autumn League - Otherton Pool 28th August 2011

Weather: 16C-18C sunny for most part with a torrential downpour 10 mins before the end.
Water: Muddy Brown
Peg: 24
Baits: Screttings Micro's, Got Atomic Paste, Ringers 4mm Expanders, Bag'Em Krill Seaker groundbait, Worms and White Maggots
Weight: 80lb 7oz (1st)

After missing the first of the St.Johns Autumn league matches on my favourite Tooby's pool I was looking forward to a days carp bashing on the prolific Otherton pool. Now this venue is full of fish that are often very difficult to catch in a match so this often gets my head whirring. Today though I had decided to make them have it short and down the edge.

I set up 3 lines, only 2 produced so I will just talk about those. Firstly I knew paste has been out fishing the pellet on the pool so this was the first line I went about setting up on the shelf at 4m in front of me in just over 3ft of water. I set up a SconeZone Jadz 0.2g to 0.17 straight through to a size 12 B911, this was matched to black hydro. On this line I also set up a pellet/maggot rig incase the paste did not produce; a 0.2g Maver invincible series 7 was set up on 0.15 - 0.13 hooklength with a 18 B911 on grey hydro.

The final line was tight into the edge next to some boarding holding the bank up in 18 inches of water. I set up a Hillybilly ratcatcher 2 to 0.17 straight through to a Kamasan animal size 14, again matched to black hydro.

At the all in I potted a medium cad pot of micros onto my line at 4m and went over the top with a double maggot to see what was in the peg... couple of roach later and carp being caught to my left on the paste on that line I immediately had to change. A change on to the paste saw carp coming reguarly for an hour and a half before starting to slow.



Showing peg position and the lines fished.



I pilled in 2 large pots full of loose groundbait down the edge and went over with 4 maggots on the hook, before the float settled a fish was streaming elastic out of my po

le tip. I went straight back over and had another quick fish. After this I could see a number of fish coming in and spooking off, I pressumed that they were spooking from the pole being held over the edge so came off that line.

I re-fed one pot full and went back to the paste line. It was solid again with fish and I mistakenly fed micros with my paste which resulted in a couple of foul hookers pulling out and one coming to the net. It was far better not feeding a thing on that line. I fished this line for another hour and a half until 13:00, whilst feeding a big pot of groundbait down the edge every 30 mins.

The penultimate hour saw me catching reguarly down the edge on 2 halfs a worm and on occasions changing to 4 maggots on the hook. The trend seemed to be that if fish were visible down the edge then the maggot would catch quicker whereas if I could not see any movement the worm would catch quicker. The final 30 mins saw me get one liner with a minute to go from the all out which was frustrating, I had gone back on the paste line to no avail and tried the other margin but there seemed to be no fish about.

At the all out I reckoned I had 65lbs which I thought was enough for a win but was very surprised when my nets went 80lb. If the fish had of kept coming and not lost the 4 foul hookers I think I could have easily done the ton from this peg. In reflection I am glad I went for an attack where the fish usually feed on that pool, I think the fish are always close on this pool it is just a matter of getting them feeding over these lines. Next up Laugherne Island for Whitehall and Tooby's for St.Johns, two matches I quite fancy getting something from lets hope so!!



Whitehall League Match - Hallow Club Pools 21st August 2011

Weather: 20C-22C sunny.
Water: Dark Brown, in the shade for most of the match.
Peg: 17
Baits: 4mm screttings pellet, 2mm coppens pellet, 6mm  van den eynde marine expanders Atomic Paste, caster and white Maggot
Weight: 53lb 6oz (1st)

An early start was needed in order to find this one and to try and decifer Mr Hope's directions and the legend that he is got me there without getting lost!

Nothing known about this place apart from its stocked with carp and silvers which doesnt make the match easy to go about planning for. I planned to fish caster for no other reason than I had 3 pints of them I had turned myself. They were rank and much titilation was had in the car park before the match, resulting in them being covered in tumeric?

I set up a caster line at 10m on the deck at 5ft with a 0.2 homemade pencil on 0.13 powerline and a 0.11 hl to a 18 B911 and a on the drop 2ft - 1ft rig with a 4x10 (stotz) Hillybilly guzzunder to the same line combination. These were on double 5 latex and preton 9h respectively. I set up a pellet line at 5m on a 0.2 maver invincible series 7 on 0.15 to 0.13 to a 16 B911. A paste line was set up here but not used. Final line I set up was towards an empty platform on my right in 18inches of water on a Hillbybilly Ratcathcer 2 float to 0.17 straight throught a 14 B911. (This had 2ft of line above eventually as the fish were spooking, more of that later)

I started pinging caster at 10m and had the odd fish, a lovely mixed bag included roach, rudd, perch, chub, tench and a small carp from this line. I had to play with depths, shotting and feeding to keep fish coming and never really put a string of fish together. I alternated from this line and my 5m pellet line which I was feeding with a medium cad pot every 10mins. By this stage it was 2 1/2 hours into match and people with the sun in their pegs were catching carp irregularly. By 3 1/2 hours I had 8lbs in my nets, not good by any means, however the sun was moving towards my peg and with it cruising carp.

I fed my margin swim with a pot full of micros and a pot full of caster and went over with 4 maggots on the hook. I had 3 quick fish giving me great confidence. The fish then started to spook easily in the margins so I changed to a longer rig and held the pole away from their heads.

I put some more in the net this way, feeding a ball of pellet every fish by hand. By lengthing the rig I had also made myself a 'mugging' rig. I tried flicking the rig past the nose of cruising fish and hoped they would snaffle the 'quad mag' bait. I managed 10 fish out of an attempted 30 on the mugging front. At the same time I put the rig into the edge whilst waiting for a suitable fish to 'mug' and then hurridly postioned my pole. This was a frantic last hour where I put 40lbs in the net and was swinging my pole around a lot, my shoulders ached to say the least.

When the scales came around I couldnt believe I had done 50lb and beat 2nd place by over 20lbs after the appauling start to the match, just shows that you should never pack up early. Next match Laugherne Island at Cob House, a Nemisis of mine as I have never done very well on opens there although I enjoy fishing it. The semi finals of the knock out will also take place here so all to play for.

Whitehall League Match - Pheasant Pool Elmbridge Fishery 14th August 2011

Weather: 18C-22C overcast.
Water: Rich clay like brown
Peg: 20
Baits: 4mm and micro fishery pellet, 6mm  van den eynde marine and ringers expanders, paste from fishery pellets
Weight: 54lbs 3oz (4th)

So after missing a few weeks due to holidays and the sort I get back to fishing with a mid week open at Ockeridge and finish 4th with 86lb off of Meadow 20. Onto the Whitehall league and after missing a match on the club pool I need some points. So peg 20 comes out of the bang and the long and the short of it is I finish 4th. So 3 matches, 3 peg 20's and 3 4th places.

Getting to my peg I am pleased to see an overhanging tree with a cut in to the bank with 2ft of water tight in to my left and an inlet pipe to my right with again 2ft of water. The marginal shelf quickly slopes off to 4 1/2ft at 2+2 and at 13m this remains the same. The info I have is that pellet and paste is fished short for most wins on the opens.

Showing peg position and lines fished

With this in mind I set up a pellet rig at 2+2 with a 0.4 Maver invincible series 7 to 0.17 preston powerline and a 0.15 h/l to a 16 B911 this was matched with grey hydro. For this line I also set up a paste rig with a 0.4 SconeZone Jadz on 0.19 poweline straight through to a 12 B911 on black hydro. My margin rigs were a 0.1 Hillybilly Billybob to 0.19 powerline straight through to a 14 B911 for the worm over micros, this was matched to purple hydro.

I started my match wanting to go to 13m and feed my 2+2 line for at least 30mins before going onto it. However feeders started to crash in around that line from the adjacent bank and my peg was fizzing away from 4m-7m out. I went out with a medium sized cad pot of 4mm pellets and a 6mm pellet on the hook. The float was burying at a good rate and a good number of mixed sized skimmers came to the net between the 30min mark and the 1hour 15min mark. People up the pool were catching carp, big munting carp as well, so I had to change.

Next time the float dipped a 4lb carp came to the net. So back out I went feeding after every fish or 5mins as I was feeding before (varying the amount of pellets to the fish I was catching). The float dipped slightly then burried and a long fight ensued. A carp of well over 15lb came to netting range when ping the hook pulled from the leviathon. This triggered me to move onto the paste from here on in, whilt maintaining the pellet feed.

The 2nd and 3rd hours of the match was spent steadily putting small carp to 3lb and skimmers to 1 1/2 into the net on the paste without a sign of any big fish. I estimated myself on 25lb-30lb which was slightly below the 40lb that the bayliff had told me i need in the first 3 1/2 hours before going down the side for 50lb+. I had seen some people start to plunder the margins early with some monsters coming out so I put 2 250ml pot fulls of micros down each edge.

I went straight down the left hand (tree) edge on double dendra worm and had a fish to 8lb straight away. I followed this by going down again and after loosing 1 to the trees and getting a huge mirror scale back I went down the other edge. Again first put in sees purple hydro streaking down the pool and another 8lb fish goes to the net. Again I go in and get another fish out to around 7lb.

The last hour was frustrating as a few perch took the worm bait down the edge. I spent most of my time thinking about back to my paste line but then what if I miss a couple of 10lb+ carp down the edge. All in all a rather frustrating final hour that saw the 1st and 2nd places bag up down the edge and only a couple of other fish coming out, including a 21lb stonker!!

Whitehall League Match - Wyatt's pool Cob House Fishery 10th July 2011

Weather: 20C-22C sunny.
Water: More mud than water
Peg: 20
Baits: 4.5mm fishery pellet, 4.5mm and 6mm  van den eynde marine and ringers expanders and red maggot (paste was in the bag but never came out)
Weight: 116lb

I wanted a few things from this match; a ton weight, to qualify for king of sections if I don't frame, to beat Mick Whatling in the league knockout and to beat Keith Holt in the singles knockout competition.After some strange pegging of the pool saw a couple of anglers with a great deal more space than others I got to peg 20 between Mike 'sex god' Hope and my knockout opponent Mick 'foul mouth' Watling.

Approaching my peg I started to try to set my platform up in the water but Mich quite rightly pointed out that I was still as drunk as a skunk so he wouldn't advise this tactic. On to the rigs, quite simple today, pellet on top kit and pellet on top kit + no4 section. Job done. Rigs were all maver incible series 7 pencils on 0.15mm powerline to the same diameter hooklength with a 16 B911 or a banded pellet hair rigged on a size 18 B911. I also set up a shallow rig on a homemade 0.1g pencil float to the same 0.15mm powerline. I wanted to start on grey hydro and change to black hydro or double 8 when bagging but the fish were bolting so much I had to many pulls on the later so stuck with grey throughout the match.

I plumbed a line a top kit out between my nets and then one at a top kit and no4 section straight in front of me. Match started slow with some not catching until 15mins into the match and Mick next to me having a horrendous time and using some exceptional expletives to demonstrate his frustration. I was catching steady on the deck on 4mm expanders, the new van den eynde marine expanders are light which matched the coppens feed pellets perfectly.

I caught steady thtoughout match having to swap to maggot on occasions to keep the speed of my catches quick enough. The last hour and half was where the damage was done, I shallowed up to avoid foul hookers that were a problem and got the fish at 18inches a top kit out. The fish were coming fast and responding to feed, I fed nearly 4 pints of pellet in last 90mins of the match and put 50lb in the net in this time. I was connecting with the better fish shallow and had a number of 3lb-4lbers in the last hour.

I was chuffed with getting 116lbs from a unrenowned area on wyatts and also being squashed in with other anglers who didn't get big weights. I also qualified for king of sections and beat the 2 knockout opponents!! Result!!

Whitehall League Match - Leigh Sinton Woodland Pool 2nd July 2011

Weather: 16C - 18C overcast for most of day with sunny patches.
Water: Rich Brown
Peg: 11 (non permanent)
Baits: Micros and 4mm skrettings feed pellets, 4mm and 6mm  van den eynde marine and ringers expanders, paste and the humble maggot.
Weight: 13lb 7oz

Well on arrival I drove straight down to the pool and sat there feeling sorry for myself after the skinfull I had the night before. The draw was up on the car park so I gingerly made my way back up to draw peg 11, off of the island and with no clear features apart from an overhanging bush on my left hand margin swim.

Without any knowledge of the fishery or any clear features I decided on the usually productive pole lines for a commercial fishery and plumbed a line on the deck at 13m in open water, a line at 5m on the slope and 2 margin swims. I was going to set a shallow rig up however with the depth being 5ft in my swim and the pool generally only used by pleasure carp anglers I reckoned that the carp would be used to feeding hard on the deck.

I used Maver invicibles series 7 pencils for my pellet and maggot work, using a 0.4g at 13m in 5ft of water and a 0.2g at 5m in 3 1/2ft of water, both with 0.15mm to 0.13mm and a 16 B911 both to grey hydro. For my paste line I used a SconeZone Jadz in 0.2g on 0.15mm straight through to a 14 B911. The edge rig was a Hillbilly ratchatcher 2 on 0.17mm to 0.15mm and a size 14 B911.
On the all in I put a whole big pot of micros and 4mm pellets on the 13m line and started on 5m line feeding micros and fishing maggot through a cad pot and. Well after 40mins with no sign of a fish my side of the pool and a number of anglers catching well from the island I decided to have a look on the 13m line as the fish must have backed off.

Feeding through the cad pot was not working but I was getting signs on the float, I decided on potting in another pot of micros, 4mm pellets and maggot. Straight away the peg started to fizz and I had a number of small roach and tiny carp and 2 eels off this line in the next 2 hours. I fed a whole big pot of pellet every 20mins whilst flicking maggot and pellets on my 5m line and potting in 4mm pellets and lumps of paste down both edges.

I had stopped getting bites on my 13m line and just before coming off it to have a look for some lumps my float buried and I struck into a 3lb carp which scrapped all the way to the net, with the peg still fizzing I stayed on that line a bit longer. Float buried again and this time a foul hooked carp trashed my hooklength.

After another 10mins I went down the edge and straight away a splash and a splosh and black hydro is stretching across the pool only for it to ping out. Straight away another carp on to the hook, this time no bigger than 12oz. There was some movement in the edge so I went straight back into the swim and this time had to wait 2mins for the float to bury and before I could strike seeing black hydro shooting across the pool. A lengthy scrap insued and the result was an 8lb ghostie, my 2nd and biggest ghostie ever!!

The margins then seemed to die with no movement, no bites and nobody else catching. I went onto my 5m line with some paste and had another carp pull put which was frustrating giving that the weights were so low. After the shortest weigh in ever and the most DNW's I have ever witnessed on a commercial fishery I found my self beaten by 2 island pegs which I cannot grumble about, especially with 2 DNW's in my section and my section winning with 10oz.

I think Cob House next week shall be a little different.

Whitehall League Match - Broadacres 19th June 2011

Weather: 16C - 20C overcast for most of day with sunny patches.
Water: Murky green/grey
Peg: 30
Baits: 4mm, 6mm, 8mm meat (half natural/half red), red corn, fishery (red) pellets, casters
Weight: 35lb 8oz

Onto the third Whitehall match and I felt before this match I need to start pulling my finger out with 2 mediocre results prior to this match I wanted a frame, if not at least a section win. Although I do approach every match wanting to win!!

So an early start with an 8 o'clock draw and fishing 9 until 2 made me think a bit more about tactics for the match. I heard the fish go quite big and don't see many pellets or past compared to other pellet driven fisheries so this screamed 2 things worm or meat. I have blown out so many times on the worm it had to be the meat for me and away I went the night before dying bits of meat red... I turned up the next morning looking like I had just murdered someone and with frozen meat that I was trying to defrost with the heaters in my car, much to the amusement of the lads there!!

The draw came around and 30 stuck to my hand, excellent a long range island chuck, lovely stuff. I sped the car around and started to set my gear up. Plan was going to be to mug a few carp on the meat at the bottom of the shelf early and then have a long line on the meat and a pellet feeder to the island.

Pole rigs for the day were my favourite big bait floats of KC carpa 2's. The bottom of the ledge plumbed up at 4ft and my 14m line was 4.5ft so a 4x14 float was used for both swims. These were rigged with 0.15 preston power line to a 0.15 hooklength with a 16 B911 both on grey hydro on a pulla. I fish the meat a bristle length over depth so the weight does not interrupt the shotting of the float and bites are usually quite savage anyway so the finesse is not needed. Also prevents striking at roach playing football with your meat on the bottom. I also set up a caster rig at 4ft on a 0.2g homemade pencil with 0.11 to 0.09 with a 18 drennan silver fish pellet hook to preston 11h set soft.

KC Carpa 2 4x14



My feeder set up was a 12ft Maver black ice with a shakey mach 1 XT with 3lb maxima line. This was ties to a quick change swivel where I could then clip on my feeder. I have been using the pellet feeders by preston recently as opposed to the method with pellets. I feel a lot more confident that my pellets have got to the deck in these feeders and they also offer more grip on a slope up to an island that the tradition method feeder does. I clipped one of these on to the quickstop and clipped up a foot away from the left on the island where a branch was overhanging into the water. I used a 6inch 0.21 hooklength to a size 14 Kamasan animal with a red hi-viz quickstop on a hair.

 

I started the session by potting in a full 250ml pot of caster on my 6m line followed by a good handful of 6mm meat. I then fished this for 30mins with one foul hooked car being the result... it was dead looking around me nobody was catching, Les had a few good roach and skimmers next to me on the same line so I boshed in some more casters on this line and stuck a big pot of meat and casters out at 14m. I had 6 quick roach and then the swim died off after catapulting in 10 casters after each fish. There were fish cruising in the morning sun at this point and I kept looking to the island for any movement but couldn't spot any.

Onto the long line, firstly with caster rig to see what was there... roach were there and I had 4 before it went dead. A switch to the meat saw a few liners and then the float sunk a solid strike saw solid resistance and the carp went tearing off right into the next pegs swim. Finally getting the 5lb+ fish into the net was a relief and I think the first carp landed although John Snelson had a huge eel.

Messing about on this line for a further 20mins saw nothing but a roach on 6mm piece of meat so it was time to chuck to the island. Mid day is about the time I wanted to start chucking however I hoped more fish would have been in the net by then I had about 7lbs so far which was about par.

Showing peg and lines fished (Red = Pole / Blue = Feeder line)

Stuffing the pellet feeder with pellets and with 2 8mm cubes of red meat on the hook it took 4mins for the tip to violently wrap around. A 6lb battle axe came to the net. The tip flew around about 20mins after that and then the drag started to scream until it quickly hit the clip, I managed to unclip it to look up and see a big fish top out past the island. A long battled ensued and finally I got the leviathans head up and to the net. A good 15lbs I thought where as the scales read just over 13lb for the long and thin common.

Now I am a fit lad but boy my arm was aching after that. At this point it was 45mins until the end of the match. My next cast saw yet again the tip wrap around and playing the fish whilst talking to John Snelson is not a good idea... he managed to jinx me and the hook pulled at the net. Never mind next cast saw a slender 4lb fish in the net and with 5 mins to go another huge wrap around saw me playing a fish well after the all out had gone and what I thought was another double was just short of that mark.

With the length of the fish and the way they pulled I thought I had 40lb in my net easily. The scales came around and told a different story however I had more than enough for the win. I rued not chucking the feeder at the start however the match could have done differently if I had.

Final note is if you fancy some preston pellet feeders all you need is a boat and head down to Broadacres and on the small island there are 3 there dangling away like baubles.

Whitehall Thursday Evening Match - Whitehall Pool 16th June 2011

Weather: 16C cloudy with one heavy shower at start of match
Water: Dark brown
Peg: 9
Baits: Fishery pellets paste, paste and paste
Weight: 30lb 0oz

Onto my second Whitehall evening match, I have thoroughly enjoyed the 2 I have fished and will be looking to get to more in the future when Rugby training allows. My first match was a straight shoot out between me and the next peg, unfortunately I could not get another carp out or winkle a few silvers out to make up the extra 1lb that beat me off of the next peg. So this is how the match on the 16th went...

My attack today was going to be paste for lumps and as a back up paste for lumps. I got to my peg and immediately noticed the tree in the water in my left hand margin and the scum that was attracting flies floating on top. Now this was either going to hold carp or deter them from the swim which I'll find out later. I then set upon finding where the slope levels off enough to fish the paste and this was found at 7m in 9 and a bit ft of water.

I have struggled with fishing the paste in the depth of water you find at the Whitehall pool however a switch to a different shotting pattern has helped to firstly get teh rig out and then to read bites. I am using the Sconezone 'Jadz' paste floats in a 0.8g in this swim and shot this with 0.6g of shot (10 no8 stotz), I have 7 shot 8 inches from the float and then 3 shot are placed directly under the float. This I find helps with the rig being blown around and line swinging around when being cupped in and also settles the rig and the float alot quicker in the deep water. This was on 0.17 preston powerline straight through to a size 12 B911 to a top 2 with black hydro on a pulla. My edge rig was again a Sconezone Jads in 0.6g with the same line and hook combo but to purple hydro on a pulla.



SconeZone Jadz 0.8g

Onto the session; I started off at 7m with a decent ball of atomic paste and and filled the paste pot up with dampened 4mm fishery pellets. It didn't take long for the peg to start fizzing away with smaller fish and after 2 more balls of paste went in on the hook I had a bite which I promptly lost. At this point the peg was silly with fizzing so I went half a section out (inch deeper). As soon as the float settled I was getting nods and then the float sat under the surface, a strike saw black hydro race across the pool and my pole sections quickly following it out. Quite a lengthy battle ensued but resulted in a lean 6lb mirror in the net.

At this point I had stopped feeding pellet and was really squeezing my paste hard on the hook to get it down past the silvers. I had a 20min mess around in the edge and it was solid with silvers and the scum was getting on my new sconezone floats, so without a sign of a carp I chucked the top kit up the bank and focused on that 7m line. I had to wait 15mins for my next bite which was a classic paste sail away a firm strike saw my elastic sit straight above my swim. On shipping back I thought I had a big ol'bream however as soons as this fish saw the net he decided to go beserk!! A near miss with the tree in my margin and a 8lb-9lb was in the net.

I am now over the half way stage in the match and to my right Lee Davey has 3 fish and Dave Warren has 2 lumps. I then get into another dopey 8lb fish that easily comes to the net, this time I am back on the original 7m line and have started banging in the pellets to make something happen. I ship back out and wollop the float flies under and a firm strike pulls my pole tip under the surface. Hey up, a long battle results in a good double as fat as it is long in the net. Now Lee on the peg next to me has 4 fish in his net with 30min to go and he says thay are small. I don't believe it so am begging for that float to go under for 1 more fish.

A long biteless 20mins of the match where I tried longer, shorter, more feed, no feed and even put some green atomic cloud in my paste resulted in a few liners and a nervy weigh in. I weighed 30lbs dead  and enough for the win thanks to the size of my fish. I couldn't have done it without Dave Yapp's sausage and bacon sanwich before the match - pukka!!

Barston Lakes MFS Champions League 30th May 2011

Weather: 10C-12C Constant rain all day.
Water: Deep green/brown
Peg: 20
Baits: green swim stim for method with dead reds, tutti fruti 8mm boilies and white fish 8mm boilies. Micros, 4mm&6mm expanders and dead reds for pole.
Weight: 49lb 4oz

A miserable day greated my first MFS match of the year however upon walking into the club house at Barston that was soon forgotten, what wonderful facilities for the use of a fishery. The tactics for the match was going to be long range method fishing, with some lads not even contemplating setting up a pole line. However with 2 hours to set up and my rods already set up to go I had to set the pole up, if anything to stop from being bored in the driving rain.

The peg I pulled out had no obvious features being between the 18th green and the island. On having a chuck around I kept getting snagged at 50 turns so chucked at 65 with the option if going to 75 if they backed off the feeder crashing in to the relatively shallow water at Barston. I set up a 12ft Maver black ice with a shakey Mach 1 XT loaded with 4lb daiwa sensor. I also got out my old MAP power carp feeder rod which has loads of casting power if the wind got up or I needed the longer chuck, to the same reel combo again.

After clipping both reels up and tying marker knots on the line at the same distance I set up a pole line at 13m just as a back up/last resort type thing if the method had gone completely dead. I had just over 4ft at 11m, 13m and 14m so settled on the 13m line, if it worked out I needed this line I could come closer and also follow them out from 13m. I set up a maver invincible series 7 pencil on 0.13 to 0.11 hook length with a size 18 b911.

Onto the session, on the all in I chucked out 6 feeder fulls of my method mix in a med cage feeder, this was spread between 60 and 70 turns on the reel and because of my dodgy casting a little left and right of my marker. I then followed this in with the method, because of the distance I plumped for a large brass stem feeder by Kobra, these can really be punished on the cast and the stem wont flex like the plastic counterparts.

First cast I sat and waited in anticipation for all of 3mins when wallop, my tip flew round and the line hit the clip, I luckily got the line free to hear my drag screaming away (I could have been off the coast of Florida keys for a moment hooking into a Marlin, then I remembered how wet and cold I was and how big the carp go in Barston). A long battle ensued and the double figure beasty just fit into my landing net. A great start. The next hour produced 6 little F1's on the method line and then I had a quiet 30min spell. I decided to lob it that bit further to 75 turns. As soon as the method hit down I struggled to tighted up, something must be wrong so I reeled in about 20 turns until I hit something solid. Must be those snags I had found earlier right... wrong turned out to be the worlds biggest drop back bite and the fish just kept swimming towards me until it realised he was in netting distance and a nice 5lb of carpy lump was in the net. Hour 2 and 3 were steady with me changing the distance of casting I was making to keep skimmers and f1's up to 2lb coming to the net.

Hour 4 went a bit dead so I plonked in some micros a few expanders and some dead reds onto my pole line and had 2 more fruitless chucks whilst pinging maggot over the top of my pole line. 1st put in on the pole line and the float bobs and dips for 30 seconds before a big lift and a sail away reults in a decent bream of 3lb odd coming to the net. After this I had 2 roach and an f1 fall off the hook in 20mins so back to the rested method line for the last hour. 2 proper carp followed with 1 being smaller that most the f1's and the other around 3lb and the last 20mins was made up of 4 more skimmers on the method line.

At the weigh in I had 2 huge weights of 79lb and 86lb to my right and I knew I had beaten all thise to my left in my section. I just needed a bit of luck here to get a double default. On hearing that there were a few 90's from other sections I thought this was a goner but waited in the bar anyway until I had to shoot off. Unfortunatley before my sectioned was called out duuuuur, £40 that could have found a good home!

In other news I had 122lb on wyatts at cob house on the top kit+1 ans pellet for 5th. Not much to talk about there catch, feed, rebait and repeat.

Whitehall League Match - Whitehall Pool 22nd May 2011

Weather: 12C - 16C cloudy with showers, very strong wind 20mph+ gusts.
Water: Rich brown with 16ft breakers (in my peg anyway).
Peg: 27
Baits: 4mm feed pellet, 6mm & 8mm expanders sensas crazy bait red broundait and meat
Weight: 9lb something

Well conditions were far from perfect today. I stood at the car park on my first club match thinking crikey I wish I had a cooked breakfast this morning, oh and of course how the hell am I going to present a bait in this.

I decided to go for a anything that swims and can fit a 6mm pellet in its gob approach and found 8ft of water at 7m to attack as this was the limit of holding my pole in these conditions. Second approach was to pile in groundbait into the edge and fish big chunks of meat over the top to snare some of the bigger carp towards the end of the match.

Rigs I set up:
Pellet on the deck was a 0.8g Maver Invincible series 7 shotted with a spread bulk of no 8s and 2 no 10 back shots. This was on a 0.17 powerline to 0.15 powerline hooklength tied to a B911 size 16. Due to conditions this was  set the float bristle length overdepth and half a tub of bristle grease to stop it sinking into the waves. This was set to soft set black hydro which lands anything with a pulla
I also set up a couple of shallow lines which did not produce so I'm not going to talk about them!!
Margin line was a 0.2g Hillybilly Billybob undershotted so the meat took the bristle to 1cm above the raging weir pool I had in my margins. Line was 0.19 powerline straight through to a Kamasan Animal size 14, and this was fished to Red Hydro.

Started off kinder potting squeezed balls of 4mm feed pellets on my out line and fishing a 8mm over the top to wait for the bigger residents which resulted in 2 gudgeon. Not what was expected, a switch to the 6mm propmted the crucuans and f1s to have ago and in the first hour and half I put 3lb of bits and pieces in my net. To my left maggots were being pinged in and that killed my swim cold. Little interest for the pellets on the deck, shallow, shorter or longer than where I was fishing. A solitary skimmer and a 2oz scale from a foul hooked monster was all I gained for my troubles.

Onto the margin line that I had been feeding with loose groundbait, first put in and the float dibs and before it dob it shoots under and I am met with solid resistance. A beligerant fight insues and a snare the 5lb beasty in no time. Straight back in and the float keeps traveling down, after thinking the meat had pulled it down the slope I lift gently in to a funny shaking fish. It zigged and zagged around leading me to thinking it is a tench however out came a load of fins and not a lot of fish. Getting very excited after seeing everyone else struggle I go back down the edge only to be sitting in hope that my float would then sail away. Both edges didn't produce a touch for best part of an hour and half and my pellet line just produced some other bits and pieces. Overall a little disapointing but not too bad with the other weights coming from the pool and with some anglers failing to catch all day. Winning weight of 16lb was done on the maggot catching the silvers that are so prolific on the venue.

Been a bit occupied...

What was going to be an almost weekly venture into blogging has turned into a sad neglected account of some odd fishing exploits. Must try must harder in future although I have been side tracked by the odd bits and pieces at work (KERCHING).

To sum up from my last post, I have been mostly taking part in club events with a few opens here and there. During the Easter break I went to Ockeridge for 3 mid week opens, I had heard a lot about the place and it was responding well to the pellet. I had some good weights of 69lb 78lb and 79lb all on the pellet and bit of paste down the edge but was always short 25lb-30lb for the frame, usually coming from end pegs which i failed to draw. I also ventured to cob house on a miserable April day, was the only day in April it rained, to fish a Wednesday open on Laurel. I like this pool because of the prolific catches of all the varied species in there. Conditions stopped huge weights coming out and 95lb won with lots of 60s and 50s. I came 4th with 63lb of pellet caught fish with an impressive silvers net weighing 29lb of skimmers, roach, Rudd, crucians and tench.

On the club scene I have had a truly miserable spring league with St.Johns after coming 3rd in the Autumn series I set the bar quite high for myself. The 3 small pool fished miserably with very tight fields and then came tooby's on the windiest day EVER. I drew the car park side right in the corner with the wind battering me all day and tried for the first hour to fish bagging wag and pellet wag. Truly pants! I had mixed a load of groundbait expecting a great day so 2 hours left and a Rudd in my net I filled in a line at 8m and tried to fish my pole. Now if you were pegged to my right 8m away you would now be without head as all I do was get spun around on my box with the wind which was now sending waves over my footplate. Chucked a method feeder out and wallop 1st carp of 4lb in the net, next put in a drop back and a skimmer, next put in tip flies around and drag starts screaming 13lb now in the net with this beasty. I then chucked back in and had a small carp of 2lb after 10mins wait. All the while I was looking into the corner as I saw some tails in the edge so I had a chuck. All of a sudden a back appears out the water and I reliase I must have cast into about 8inches of water and there goes my tip, after a long battle out comes another 7lb-8lb fish so about 22lb in the net and 10mins left. Which swim do I choose, I went for the edge swim and luckily the tip went around and a nice 6lb-7lb fish was the result. 29lb I put on the scales which I thought would be enough not to be embarrassed but everyone else had struggled bar Dobbo out of the wind on the baggin wag and his 2lb test curve rod. So I ended up with 3rd and a 100% record of framing on tooby's.

Onwards now to the Whitehall league campaign, starting at the club pool.....

Whitehall Silvers Match 3rd April 2011

Weather: 10C-16C cloudy patches of strong sun, gusts of wind and storm clouds narrowly missed us at end of match.
Water: A clear top layer then a rich brown colour (sediment dropped with high pressure).
Peg: 20
Baits: White & Bronze maggot, Worm and Groundbait mix
Weight: 10lb 6oz

I trundled into the Whitehall at 7:45 a good deal less hung over than the previous match which helped with my input into the usual fishing tales of the past fortnight and banter from the last match. Unfortunately, again, I had no tales of my own to add over the breakfast table so I just ploughed as much food and coffee down my gob as possible.

Onto the pool and again the open was a sell out, full credit must go to the organiser Dave Warren but also to the pool which has been fishing well. A lot of poor mothers were unfortunatley neglected. Was nice to see a couple of fellow st.johns anglers in Ash Jauncey and John Snelson. The drawbag came round and 20 came out, 21 for Ash and 18 for John, so a good competitive day was going to be had. Before I get into the nitty gritty of the match I will post a photo of my new kitpod I recently won from MFS, it is getting a lot of attention so here it is for you all to drool over:

Onto the match, now I have heard some storys of how Alf Hands has been clearly winning these events so have kept these under wraps until now, when this is the last in the series. Luckily I was pegged opposite him so could keep an eye on him, unluckily he was the only angler with 2 free pegs either side of him and on one of the best pegs on the pool.

I opted to get the fish up early, I had heard frequent small balls of groundbait to be the key to getting the silvers feeding in the upper layers. The mix I used for this was 500g sensas lake black, 300g bag'em super skimmer dark and 200g brown crumb. I mixed it quite wet as all of the mixes soak up a lot of water and I wanted to loose feed it as a small disk. Hookbaits were white and bronze maggot for this line. I also fancied some big perch so brought around a 1/4 kilo of worm that I aimed to fish the margin with.

I looked to fish between topkit +1 section to topkit  +2 sections shallow for speed of fishing and ease of feeding groundbait and maggot. I plumbed up to find bottom to set a rig on the deck just in case the fish were again reluctant to leave the bottom, I had a good 9ft of water a top kit out and this got half an inch deeper 2 more sections out. Float of choice was a Garbo DS21 in 0.8g on 0.11 powerline to a 0.09 powerline hooklength to a 20 drennan silverfish maggot. Shotting was in mind to search a bit of water for a bite so a 0.5 olivette was used with 5 no9 shot as droppers evenly spaced from olivette to the 6inch hooklength. I used this on a top 2 with doubled 5 set soft, this had to be used with a spare no4 section due to the depth.

My shallow rigs were set on 2 homemade pencils one being a 0.6g for fishing 7ft up to 6ft and the other a 0.4g for fishing 5ft up to 3ft, another rig was on standby if the fish wanted to come right up but this wasn't used. Both of these rigs are 0.13 powerline to a 0.09 poweline hooklength and size 18 drennan silverfish maggot. Shotting was strung out  evenly along the entire rig. My 5ft rig on doubled 3 and 7ft rig on a single 6 elastic.

Onto the match and I potted in a lightly squeezed tangerine size ball with as much loose groundbait as could fit in my pot on my topkit +2 line. I then went over the top with my deck rig with single bronze maggot. First 3 put ins resulted in 3 savage bites before the olivette had settled properly. I instantly threw the topkit on my roost and get the shallow rigs out to play.

8 Fish in the next 10 minutes and I start getting into a rhythm of catching throwing in a disk of groundbait shipping out feeding 5-6 maggots and repeat. This was all looking good and the fish were all of the 3oz mark but I was catching quicker than those around me. I got my self into quite a rhythm at points in the first half of the match and when this was happening I was catching quickly.

I had 30 fish by the 2 hour mark, then it went slow on people, this was in time as I got to give others some stick on the size of the 'roach' they were into as there elastic got taken for a ride by a lump of carpy things. John to my left had struck into something big and unforuntely it turned out to be a decent perch, they were on the feed and my shallow line had slowed down. I then potted my worm goo down the edge and follwed with a big worm... 30mins later without a sign and constantly feeding maggot and disks of groundbait onto my shallow line i returned to tiddler bashing.

I had been changing depths a lot during the day but found 6ft to be the optimum depth on return i was struggling with liners so went in at 5ft then shallowing to 4ft and a had a good run of rudd and ide. When this died I had to stick on an extra section to follow them out but kept feeding my short line. The last hour was sluggish with people struggling to catch, I kept chopping and changing between deck shallow rigs and even had a look down edge again. A few fish were had in the last 10 but was it enough?

When the scales came to me I saw Alf had weighed 16lb, I wasn't confident of getting close to that but second was 10lb 8oz which I fancied with around 45 fish. John put 10lb 4oz on the scales and he was catching at a similar rate to me in the middle of the match and had a lot bigger fish than mine. When I pulled my bag out it looked impressive with the number of bright roach and ide. Scales wobbled between 10lb 2oz and 10lb 10oz and finally settled on 10lb 6oz. I had beaten John but still short of 2nd so sat in 3rd, a 12lb bag then beat me out of the money but beating the other st.johns boys sat next to me was payment enough.